Some systems may implement a relay architecture, for example, as described by Long Term Evolution (LTE) Specifications, e.g., 3GPP TS 36.216, “Physical layer for relaying operation (Release 11)”, V11.0.0 (2012-09); and/or 3GPP TR 36.806, “Relay architectures for E-UTRA (LTE-Advanced) (Release 9)”, V9.0.0, (2010-03).
The relay architecture may be configured, for example, to provide coverage extension, capacity enhancement, and/or load balancing.
The relay architecture may implement a Relay Node (RN), which may serve as a “normal” Evolved Node B (eNB) from the point of view of a User Equipment (UE).
An in-band RN use case, in which an access link and a backhaul link may share the same radio resources, with the separation in time domain, may be deemed, in some scenarios, as a prioritized deployment option due, for example, to its efficient radio resource utilization and backwards compatibility with existing LTE UE and eNB procedures. However, this architecture may provide a limited backhauling capacity, which may not be able to support growing traffic demands.
There is a need for relay architectures and methods, which may be able to support an enhanced backhauling capacity for relay nodes, for example, to support increasing user data rate demand in the access link.